On Saturday, the University of Maryland continued its annual day of fun festivities. Maryland Day brought hundreds of people together to celebrate the accomplishments and opportunities here at UMD. Among the events was a gathering of young artists in the Cambridge Community Center. Students of the College Park Arts Scholars program led the event, known as Arts Fest.
This year’s Arts Fest embraced live music, Bollywood and Israeli dance performances, poetry readings, original short films and more. It allowed the students to showcase their involvement with the arts scholars program. In fact, they spent their spring semester in a variety of different workshops, which included: vocal performance, cultural dancing, poetry, visual art, graphic novels and other activities.
After weeks of preparation, students were able to transform the Cambridge Community Center into an art gallery that provided family, friends, visitors and students with a chance to see the time and dedication devoted to continuing an art tradition at Maryland that has been alive for the past several years. The students played several different roles. Some performed, while others helped organize and prepare students for their presentations.
“At Arts Fest I decided to read all the participant’s graphic novels and all of them were amazing,” said Faith Udofia, a sophomore computer science student. “It made me feel proud to have been their workshop leader.”
Hannah Hirschorn, a sophomore sociology major, also described her experience as a participating Arts Scholar.
“That’s what I love about Arts Fest — getting to see all of the talented Arts Scholars perform and discovering talents I never knew my friends and peers had,” she said.
For many of the students, this is their last year being a part of College Park Scholars. Many used the festival to showcase their final projects. But although they have successfully finished the course workload for the program, being a part of the scholars’ family is something that does not go away with credits.
This semester will conclude my time at Arts Scholars but surely not my involvement. The Arts Scholars program built a community of unity and collaboration amongst the students. After living together, taking classes together and more importantly creating and sharing an artistic connection, it is never truly a goodbye.